The Liverpool Way - The return to former glory

The Liverpool Way – Returning to former glory.

Intro
This will be a story that starts out written after my first season is done. And have started on my second season. But due to the amazing Liverpool story of the user Shameless I'm willing to backtrack and start retelling my story from day one.

My motivation to start a new save was mainly from the other posts on the forum and small tips and tricks of tactics and signings Ive gotten from here. Thank you all for giving me a new interest in the Premier League and FM 2012.

Preseason
I chose to play as Liverpool FC a club with former glory and my favourite club since I started taking interest in football when I was seven and saw Steve Mcmanaman destroy defenders down the wing.

Transfers
With a transferbudged at £ 1,5 m, there werent much I could do about transfers without selling some players. The only target for my first season was Edison Cavani. The rest is about getting some extra cash in to get a chance to get him. The only transfer going out i kinda regret is Jack Robinson since he is a great prospect for the future. But to get Cavani he had to go for the greater good. I got Cavani for £ 39 m over 48 months.



Preseason matches
The former manager and trainers had setup matches with teams from South America and Europe. These matches will be just a screenshot, and Ill do a full match report on all the other matches from the season. So 4 victories, 2 draws and 2 losses was the preseason, lots of matches was played with youths to get a hold of who to use.

As Ive forgotten i cant go into the matchreports for former yeards so I cant do the first season as I wanted. Which means that this will be a short first season after all. Ill do a fast recap of what happened.

League Cup
Met Brentford in the second round. The result ended 2-2, but I won on penalties.
Next up was Reading, another tie, with 3-3 and won yet again on penalties. Two bad games.
Fourth round gave me United, whom i destroyed 3-0 at Anfield. A huge victory.
Quarterfinals gave me Man City, we were the best team the entire game, but couldnt score. Balotelli sent us out of the cup in extra time! I was devastated.

FA cup
Met Millwall in the 3 round. A good 4-0 victory.
Met Cardiff, 4th round. Another victory 3-1.
Then Bristol City was up next, a 2-2 draw at Anfield sent us out in a rematch, which we won 3-0.
6th round gave me Tottenham, whom I won a 2-1 victory against.
The Semifinal gave me Manchester City again, this was the time for revenge I hoped. But no. 2-2 at full time, went 3-3 at e.t. And City was sharper against us. And i was knackered for losing the chance for another trophy!

Premier League
This is how it ended. I had the chance to win it but two losses against United and Wigan the last few games made United top me with one point! I was so close to throwing the computer into the wall.

Unlucky about not winning the title, better luck next year, plus, your English is amazing. You write better English than most Brits!! I'm guessing the flag does mean you're from Norway??

#43961 r_johnners : Unlucky about not winning the title, better luck next year, plus, your English is amazing. You write better English than most Brits!! I'm guessing the flag does mean you're from Norway??

Well, I did everything I could to try to win the table, but the loss against United and then a silly loss against Wigan made me lose 6 important points. Which made United sneak past me and never let me gain those points back. I was so mad about losing to Wigan.

And yes I'm from Norway and we start with english in school pretty early. So I've had English as a second language since like forever. The truth is that most Brits now use smstextlanguage. Shortening every single word making it annoying to read.

I hope to start the new season updates soon. Thus having alot of matches to write about.

Preseason 2012/2013

After a first season filled with dissapointment when it comes to performing when needed the most, this season must give me atleast one trophy. Second place gave me a spot straight into the Champions League that will give me some much needed income and a better opportunity too get a few star players. I will play the the Carling Cup and FA Cup to fill the trophy cabinet and do my best to pick the Premier League title from United which seems to be the strongest team this year to.

Champions League is a great bonus and I will play my best team all the time, but since this is the first season with some European matches I wont have to much hope to win it. It will be a great chance for most of the team to play against the best team in Europa.

So this seasons goal:
Win atleast one domestic cup
Top three Premier League, but focusing on beeing number 1.
Qualify for the knockout rounds atleast in Champions League.


Transfers
This season I will get Aquilani and Joe Cole back from loans, I will do my best to sell them as I can't see they do to much for me this season. And I will try to get in a right winger to help Maxi Rodriguez fill that spot and leave Suarez to be a striker again. Also there is a chance that Ill sell Carroll and buy a faster more goalgetting striker this season. My two major targets for this season is Angel Di Maria (transferlisted in Real Madrid) and Leandro Damiao from Internacional. Might even try to get a keeper and some young prospects. Will see if my transferbudget holds up good. Which looks like its coming to £ 36 m.

Preseason matches

This will be setup by my assistant manager, since I use this only to get match fit. Will come back to this later.

Transfers

My two main transfer targets got accepted. Di Maria came in fast. Leandro Damiao required a lot of negotiation to get him to a fair price. This price included a upfront sum and one over 48 monthsI also brought in a new keeper, sold Doni, and bought ter Stegen. Fierro and Hartlebury are two players for the future. Bueno is bought before I took over Liverpool so he will stay in reserves.

Training matches 2012

These are the matches in my preseason. The assistant manager wanted to take a trip to USA and have preseason set there. We started very good, with a mix of senior player and a few youngsters, and the later matches was more or less junior and reserves with a few seniors who needed to get matchfit. This you can see in the results which were kinda bad.

Liverpool – Watford

Home: 4-2-2-2
Reina |
Johnson | Agger | Coates | Enrique
Di Maria | Leiva | Gerrard | Downing
Cavani | Suarez

Away: 4-4-2
Loach |
Hodson | M Taylor | Mariappa | N Taylor
Solli | Eustace (k) | Buaben | Sinclair
Sà | Garner

Suarez injured 50
Adam 76
Henderson 90+5

Subs:
Leandro Damiao Suarez 50
Adam Gerrard 62
Henderson Leiva 80

Goals

Cavani 1

Sa 20

1-1 Half time

Cavani 61

Cavani 74

3-1 Full time

Cavani

A dominating win by the team in our first real match this season. Meeting Watford Fc who just got promoted to Premier League. A Cavani in great form hammered in three goals and made a hat trick in this match. A great performance by the team who utterly destroyed the Watford defense. It couldve been a bigger victory. But a shred in the joy was the counterattack that Watford got the equaliser. But a great team effort gave us a big win.
Suarez injured for 6 days, shin injury.

Next match: Norwich away.

Norwich - Liverpool

Home: 4-4-2
Ruddy |
Rosenior | Bamba | Barnett | Ground
Smith | Bamba | Fox | Johnson
Holt | Morrison


Away: 4-2-2-2
Reina |
Johnson | Agger | Coates | Enrique
Di Maria | Leiva | Gerrard | Downing
Cavani | Suarez

Kelly | ter Stegen | Skrtel | Henderson | Adam | Damiao | Cole


Fox injured 57


Subs:
Adam Gerrard 63
Henderson Leiva 74
Cole Downing 74

Goals

Suarez 32

Suarez 39

Suarez 42

0-3 Half time

Cavani 73

0-4 Full time

Suarez

Yet another dominating match from the team, it seems that we are hungry for goals. Took awhile to get the first but, it took half an hour to start, then Suarez scored three in ten minutes. What a show. And Cavani doing great job getting his fourth of the season. Huge win and a big performance, Norwich had no chance.

Next match: Birmingham | Premier League

Liverpool - Birmingham

Home: 4-2-2-2
Reina |
Johnson | Agger | Coates | Enrique
Di Maria | Leiva | Adam | Downing
Cavani | Suarez

Kelly | ter Stegen | Skrtel | Henderson | Shelvey | Damiao | Rodriguez

Away: 4-4-1-1
Smithies |
Carr | Pablo | Davies | Ridgewell (k)
Phillips | Spector | Hateley | Bakenga
Eriksen |
Zigic |


Hateley 56


Subs:
Henderson Adam 63
Kelly Enrique 75
Damiao Di Maria

Goals

Suarez 19

1-0 Half time

Damiao 79

Cavani 83 P

3-0 Full time

Johnson

Suarez putting on a show and Damiao coming of the bench and scoring. And with Cavani as a penalty taker he scores his fifth of the season. Cavani is extreme infront of the goal. But the man of the match, Glen Johnson was amazing with one assist and harrasing up the wing from his right and left back spot today.

Next match: Fulham | Premier League

Champions League
The Champions league groupstage draw is done. We are set to met Kroatia Zagreb, Paris Saint-Germain and Barcelona. Think its one of the toughest groups drawn. Im forseeing two losses and 4 wins that will bring me to the next stage. I fear PSG away and Barca both home and away. This will be a hard group!

Fulham – Liverpool: 1-1 | Premier League

Home: 4-4-2
Schwarzer |
Baird | Shawcross | Hangeland | Grygera
Ruiz | Sidwell | Raul Garcia | J Riise
Zamora | Dembele


Away: 4-2-2-2
Reina |
Johnson | Agger | Coates | Enrique
Suarez | Leiva | Henderso | Downing
Cavani | Damiao

Kelly | ter Stegen | Gerrard | Cole | Shelvey | Carroll | Rodriguez


Subs:
Cole Suarez 61
Rodriguez Downing 61
Gerrard Henderson 74

Goals

Dembele 21

1-0 Half time

Damiao 51

1-1 Full time

Damiao

A match I though we definitely would win beforehand. But Fulham dominated the game, and I was lucky I didnt lose. The weird thing is that Damiao became motm. But he did play well, but Fulham players was better. This was two lost points and my first real punch in the face.

Next match: Kroatia Zagreb | Champions League

Liverpool – Kroatia Zagreb 3-0 | Champions League

Home: 4-2-2-2
Reina |
Johnson | Agger | Coates | Enrique
Rodriguez | Leiva | Gerrard | Di Maria
Cavani | Damiao

ter Stegen | Skrtel | Adam | Carroll | Kelly | Downing | Suarez

Away: 5-3-2
Mlinaric |
Grcic | Stanic | Vranic | Runje | Loncarevic
Domenichioni | Botica | Lusic
Beslic | Zivkovic

Zivkovic

Subs:
Adam Leiva 69
Carroll Damiao 69
Downing Di Maria 69

Goals

Cavani 6

Mlinaric 45+2

2-0 Half time

Di Maria

3-0 Full time

Di Maria

This one we dominated and shouldve won it a lot more, Zagreb had only one shot at goal whilst we had 15 chances, 5 on goal. Di Maria did his best match since he joined us this summer. And it was a delight to see how the team came back from the terrible game at Craven Cottage. Cavani keeps putting goals and three points in our first champions league games in ages.

Next match: Arsenal (H) | Premier League

Great to see you on-board Slogh!!

Ive glanced trough your report and looks awesome! Glad to have a another Liverpool report to follow. I will be sure to steal all your great transfers and tactics

I'm heading to bed but will be sure to read it trough tomorrow bro

Liverpool – Arsenal: 1-0 | Premier League

Home: 4-2-2-2
Reina |
Johnson | Agger | Coates | Enrique
Downing | Leiva | Gerrard | Di Maria
Cavani | Suarez

ter Stegen | Skrtel | Adam | Carroll | Kelly | Rodriguez | Damiao

Away: 4-1-2-2-1
Szcesny |
Sagna | Samba | Chygrynski | Balzaretti
Djorou |
Hamsik | Song
Gervinho |Chamakh
Van Persie |

Di Maria

Subs:
Adam Gerrard 56
Skrtel Agger 70
Enrique Kelly 70

Goals

Suarez 15

1-0 Half time


1-0 Full time

Downing

A tight game where we were the better team before the break and Arsenal after. A stunner by Suarez became the winner. Downing did great with yet another assist and made motm. This was a important victory at Anfield and kept us at the top of the league together with United still. We have a good form lately with the exception of the Fulham match. In a few weeks we will meet Barcelona to a big match.

Next match: Newcastle | Carling Cup